Calling Singapore Home

It is very interesting to follow the happenings back at home; Singapore, where I am from. I read with fascination the frustration and the tension local Singaporeans have to deal with living alongside the influx of migrants these few years. Interestingly enough, I note a few observations:

- I am a migrant to Singapore myself. I am born in Malaysia and took up citizenship when I am 21 years old. And now I am a migrant to Sydney by the virtue of my PR status and job here.
- Influx of migrants came soon after I left Singapore to work in Sydney, therefore, I did not 'experience' them fully and may or may not understand the 'problems' they 'caused'.
- Sydney, just like Singapore, welcomes migrants on a large scale everyday. I see more foreigners on the streets of Sydney City more than local Aussies. In fact, Sydney is the first stop for almost 70% migrants into Australia because Sydney is such a cosmopolitan city.

And also, on Facebook, I have increasingly encounter more and more of my FB friends commenting wryly or angrily that they are so angry, so frustrated with the 'foreign-not-so-talents' here in Singapore taking up breathing space and driving all Singaporeans up the wall.

I begin to mull, was it because Singaporeans are racist by nature? We are unable to be gracious and patient and allow integration for the migrants to acclimatised into the Singaporean society? I have plenty of Chinese friends here, 99% of them migrated into Sydney either by education or by skills or by any other way not good to know in the light; but the crux is, I never had any problems associating with them.

Yes, maybe the food they eat is a bit different from mine. Asian food are heaps weird to Aussies but I dun see my Hokkien mee or Chicken curry being criticised upon by my Aussie colleagues. Chinese maybe do speak a little louder. Maybe they are dressed a little more fashionably-challenged than what we can tahan.

But Sydney never had any problems with migrants and any social problems they may have. Of course there will be cultural differences and tension from time to time. Dun you think it will be harder for Chinese to migrate to Sydney because of the English we speak here? But why is it easier for all of us migrants to live here and integrate into the society? I dun really get a lot of racism or sarcastic remarks here myself. It is indeed food for thought.

Reading blinkymummy's blog post really got me thinking. How is it that one country's immigration program succeeds more than another country's? Perhaps Singapore's lawmakers should have study tours to Sydney to learn how to cope with immigration and how to settle migrants in. Perhaps there should be a course for all migrants to introduce Singapore to them and what to expect and how to behave socially, so as to be socially acceptable to all.

In the meantime, I urge all my Singaporean friends not to be hasty and judge people; for our grandparents or our ancestors, are migrants from China in the first place. If Singapura then has welcomed our forefathers into this land to work, earn money and live, we should be able accept our new friends to share this country we call home. Peace.